Seasonal foods also play a role in harvest celebrations. My yearning for the cool flavors of the summer garden has been replaced with the desire for hearty, warming foods. Cravings are reflected in the holiday feast with the sweet, spiced flavors of winter squash, colorful root vegetables, apples, pears, and currant-studded breads.
For me this time infuses my kitchen craft with new energy. I am drawn to spend more time in the kitchen baking up treats and brewing healthy stews, soups, and chilies. Fall foods tend to be heartier, the flavors richer, with energy to manifest cheer and coziness.
The Magick of the Pumpkin
The pumpkin is an icon of the season. Not only do they hold energy to manifest, they can banish the unwanted and reveal what is unseen. The pumpkin is one of the winter squashes that down through history provided a stable, nutritious food source during the harshest of times. They were a staple food of North and South American native peoples who regarded the pumpkin as an incarnated goddess. And It was the pumpkin that fed the pilgrims through their first winters in the New World. Pumpkin is good for you. It is high in antioxidants, particularly beta-carotene, the compound that gives vivid yellow, orange, and red coloring to vegetables, and when we eat beta-carotene our bodies turn it into vitamin A which neutralizes damaging free radicals, lowers our risk for cancer and heart disease, improves vision and cognitive function and helps to protects the skin from sun and age-related damage.